In recent years, the use of skin staplers has become one of the preferred methods of wound closure. Skin staplers rapidly and accurately close surgical wounds. Effective tissue eversion during skin stapling allows for rapid healing, and reduces the possibility of infection.
Nonetheless, as skin staplers have improved, so has the need for increased reliability and various new and unforeseen characteristics. Thus, it is greatly desirable to provide skin staplers which contain reliable staple feeding mechanisms. Previous staple feeding mechanisms have either been bulky or complex, or even quite unreliable. In order to form a more accurate skin stapler, the need exists for a reliable feeding mechanism able to fit within a staple cartridge or track, and demonstrate a thin profile in order to provide accurate, yet visible staple placement onto a surgical site.
In addition, previous systems have contained unreliable drive mechanisms. Previous systems must proceed completely along a single stroke to be fired. Not completely firing this type of stapler has previously increased the likelihood of jamming, causing delay and unreliability in the system. Of course, even if one disregards the possibility of the stapler jamming, if no provision is made for stopping the firing sequence, it is possible to lose accurate control and placement of the surgical staple.
In many staplers, feel of the mechanism is quite important. If the surgeon is able to "feel" a staple as it is being driven into the skin, the surgeon can properly place the staples and close the wound. Extremely important to such "feel" is the completion of the driving stroke. Inadvertently, the triggering mechanism goes through a rapid change in the force encountered at the stapling site. This may cause the trigger mechanism to "jump" in the surgeon's hand, due to recoil from these forces. This affects the feel to the surgeon, who desires a very smooth stroke in the stapler.
In addition, the track in which the staples are formed has been very difficult to control in manufacturing processes. This is due, in part, to the very tight manufacturing tolerances through which the staple and cartridge must be held to prevent malforming of the staple. In some staplers, especially those where the preformed staple is larger in width than its final formed shape, it is difficult to control the formation of the staple while allowing for accurate placement. Thus, it is desirable to provide a system where the staple itself enhances its own accurate placement at the forming site and, ultimately, in closing the wound.
Finally, when forming the staple, what is most necessary is repeatably creating a properly shaped staple. This allows the surgeon to position and properly place the staple on the skin. This creates the proper environment on the skin for quick and safe wound healing.
Furthermore, these desirable features of a skin stapler should be incorporated into a skin stapler with a rotating head. The rotating head concept allows the user to place the staple at the wound site, and then to examine the site before closure, without raising the stapler from the surface of the skin. In this way, the user is able to maintain contact throughout closure.